Week 46 - Caroling with Cholos

Hello all!

I hope you had a good Christmas! Mine was awesome. Good to see the fam, good to eat like a billion tamales. All good stuff.

This week was SO AWESOME!  Drum roll please.....JAMES IS GETTING BAPTIZED! So we had a stellar lesson with him. I will sum up: So he's been struggling a little with accepting a date because he wasn't ready to give up some stuff from his old life. But on Wednesday we were on exchanges (I stayed here with Sis Echeverría) and he was like "I feel like I don't have to wait a long time to get baptized." So I was so excited! And I said "well, then should we set a date?" And I suggested the 7 or 14 of January. And so he said he had to pray about it and he would tell us the next day when we came back. So we go back the next day and he said he still hadn't received an answer. So we felt prompted to kneel down right there with him and have him ask Heavenly Father if he should be baptized on the 7. So we did! And what's funny is that we can't go inside his apartment because no women live there, so we kneel down in the doorway of his apartment. But it was still powerful! And so he says his prayer in Haitian, and obviously I can't understand Haitian very well but it was a very heartfelt prayer. And after he finished he sat there for awhile and said "okay I want to do it on the 7." And it was so exciting! And he's just amazing and is progressing so much. And I love him!  So that was just too good. And that was the definite highlight of the week!

I love you all so much and I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Maybe not in our time, but definitely in His. I know this is true and I know that the Lord works miracles in our lives every day, we just have to find them!

Love,
Hermana Fowlks

 

Sister Klopfer and I with Sister Schmitt (Pres. Schmitt's wife)

at the Christmas devotional in our matching polka dots!

 

Giant missionary selfie!

Me on Christmas morning.

Christmas dinner with some food from El Salvador!

"Caroling with Cholos"  Cholos are Mexican gangsters. 

These guys like to call themselves cholos but they are all just sweeties.

Left to right: Me, Hna Klopfer, Balta, Armando, Elias, Sergio,

Bottom: Eduardo, Darren, and a small child I'm not sure his name.



One  of our cute members gave us presents!

Week 45 - Feliz Navidad!

Hello all!

This week was just as busy as the last.

Tuesday night our investigator took us out to sushi which was interesting. I do not like sushi.

Sounds like everything is good at home! I love hearing about all the fun stuff that's going on. It's weird, I don't really miss Christmas at home or anything. I know that sounds bad, but I just love it here on the mission so much that I don't even have time to think about what I'm missing! I'm so lucky to be here during this Christmas time.

Anyways, we had a super good week! We got to give another training on Wednesday which was fun, James is progressing well he just won't accept a date so we're hoping he will do that this week. Also we had another branch activity where we did Olympics. It was really fun! And we have a new ward mission leader that we already get along with super well. And that was about it! Sorry not too much to report! But I'll attach a bunch of pictures. :)

Have a happy Christmas everyone!
Love,
Hermana Fowlks

 Merry Christmas!

 Sis Kloper and I with James, Balta, Elias & Eddie at the temple.

 Sister Klopfer and I with Manny, Julian, Elder Pritchard & Elder Hampton

 Car Selfie with my companion Sister Klopfer

 Exchanges in Poway with Sister Romero

 Squad pic

 Our cute member gave us coats for Christmas!

Week 44 - Fear Has No Place With Me

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Hola Everyone!

This week was sooooo good!
 

I have never been so busy in my whole life. First of all, our training went well on Wednesday. So that was nice. 
 

I think one of my favorite things that happened this week was on Friday, during our lesson with one of our investigators. He's from Haiti. We were with our AMAZING member Manny, and Manny was talking about how he was kind of afraid to get baptized at first, but then he wasn't afraid when he started trusting in the Lord more. Then our investigator got real serious and said: "No piensan que tengo miedo. Miedo no tiene lugar en mi." ("Don't think that I'm afraid. Fear has no place with me." Thus the subject.) And it was so great. So that has become my moto. 

Sunday we got to go to the Mormon battalion! It was fun to go, and it was also cool do to the tour in Spanish.
 

Then Monday night we had noche de Hogar in the casa de la Familia Arellano. They're so awesome. This family is just 2 brothers and their dad, and they all got baptized like less than 2 years ago. Their dad is inactive, but these two guys, Manny and Julian, have some of the strongest desires I've ever seen to bring people the gospel. And they're just amazing.
 

AND we got to go do service with them on Monday to help them get their house ready for Noche de Hogar and what job do I get stuck with? GIVING THEIR GREAT DANE A BATH. Yeah, I wish I had a video or something because I'm sure it was hilarious. I will never ever complain about giving my little tiny dog Max a bath ever again.

Anyways, that was my week! I love everything about the mission. I never want it to end! And I love you all! 

Love,
 

Hermana Fowlks 

 Branch Christmas Party with the Elders

 Many of our Investigators came to the Christmas Party!

 Me wearing the cool vest of our member friend Manny

 Sister Klopfer and Me

Week 43 - Crazy

Hola! 

Ok this has literally been the craziest week of my life. So I will sum up: 

So Thursday was the kickoff of the #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative! It was so cool. We decided as a companionship to do something for some Haitian refugees that we have been teaching. So we started contacting our members to see if they had any clothes to bring, or anything. And tons of members showed up! It was awesome! So we get there, we drop off the clothes, and we're getting ready to leave when all of a  sudden we see the elders coming down the stairs basically carrying this woman who was obviously in pain. And we asked what was going on and they weren't sure because she actually didn't speak Spanish or English, she spoke French. But after a minute we figured out SHE WAS HAVING HER BABY. Yeah. So we helped her get into a member's car and he drove her to the hospital with another member and another random guy that spoke French. It was so crazy! But a miracle because if we weren't there she would have had no car and they would have had to call and wait for an ambulance and everything. 

Nice welcome to the area right?  

So then on Saturday, we were walking out from a lesson with one of our members, and my companion started talking to this man and he explained to her that he was having a horrible day. So obviously we knew what could make his day better and continued to talk to him. Turns out he had pretty much lost everything over the last year and was angry at God and had been living on the streets for the last 10 days. We wanted to help him, but we weren't really sure what to do and our member had to go but he didn't want to leave us alone with this man so we called the elders. As we continued to talk to him, we asked what we could do to help. Because he didn't want to talk about God. So he said if he could just find somewhere to sleep until Monday and somewhere to shower he would be very grateful.

So the elders show up, and we explain to them what is going on, and we ask if they know anyone that would be willing to let this man (his name is Jim) stay with them. So they start making some calls, and all of a sudden Julian, the member that was with them, offered his house! I was so grateful I could have cried!! So the elders took Jim to Julian's house, and then the other elders, the English speaking ones, took him to church the next day. And then we sent his info to the missionaries in National City because that's where he was going to work. But it was so cool and I felt so grateful to have helped him. ️ 

Then Sunday was a crazy day, because we had 9 people that wanted to come to church! But none of them can drive. So we got to their apartments, and had our members just coming and going picking them up and everything. It was crazy. And once we got all of them a ride to church, wouldn't you know it, our car battery had died. So we asked a nice man we met named Troy to help us and it all worked out except for the fact that we were an hour late to church. 

And other crazy things happened, but I'm pretty sure I covered the main points. I love this new area! And I love all the people here! I'm so grateful to be a missionary. ️️

I love you all, have a good week! 

PS we have to give a training in zone conference tomorrow and neither of us have ever done that before. Pray for us! 

Hermana Fowlks 

Sister Klopfer and I after we almost delivered a baby!

 Our Light the World kick off was collecting clothes for these refugees from Haiti.

 Our cute friend Maria.

 Us, the Elders and our friend Jim.

 Family Home Evening last night.